Linda Lee, Incorporated: A Novel. Vance Louis Joseph

and then leaving him to flounder out as best he might.

      "See here!" he reminded her indignantly as the curtain rose on the last act of Louise– "you promised to play fair." Lucinda arched mocking brows above round eyes. "Don't call this sort of thing keeping your word, do you?"

      "Aren't you having a good time, Dobbin dear?" In the half-light of the box Lucinda leaned slightly toward him, and her delicious voice dripped sympathy. "I'm so sorry, I've been trying so hard not to bore you."

      "I didn't say I was bored. I ain't – I'm being plagued by a heartless young she-devil that ought to be spanked and sent to bed. Damn it, Cinda! you not only ought to, you do know better. You know I take it seriously. But you – you're merely playing."

      "But with fire – eh, Dobbin?"

      "You know that, too."

      "And you're warning me lest I get singed?" Lucinda contrived to look a little awed. "How thoughtful!"

      "Don't make me out a greater dunce than I am."

      "Meaning you don't think I'm in any danger of getting scorched, carrying on with you?"

      "Worse luck!"

      "Dobbin: have you been deceiving me, aren't you the least bit inflammable, after all?"

      "You know jolly well I took fire years ago and have never since managed to get the conflagration under control. Isn't ladylike to put the bellows to flames you don't mean to quench."

      "How appallingly technical! But you do sputter so entertainingly, Dobbin – burning under forced draught, I presume you'd say, with your passion for riding a metaphor till it flounders – I'm not sure I'd care to see you quenched; I hate to think of you being put out with me."

      "You play with words precisely as you play with me."

      "You think so? Well, perhaps, but – Dobbin – don't be too sure. Think how sad it would be if you were to find out, too late, you'd been mistaken, you'd meant more to me than words could tell, more than you knew."

      Over this equivoque Dobbin shook a baffled head; and Lucinda laughed, glanced carelessly toward the stage to make sure that the act still was young, and offered to rise.

      "Let's not stay any longer, Dobbin, or we'll be caught in the carriage jam. Let's trot along and have a good time."

      "What's the next jump?"

      "To the Palais Royal." Dobbin uttered an involuntary sound of dissent. "Why not? Julie Allingham wants us to join her party – says everybody goes there nowadays, and it's desperately rowdy and loads of fun – said to ask for her box and make ourselves at home if we got there before she did."

      Mrs. Allingham was not one of Daubeney's favorites. A persevering body, with a genius for trading in last season's husband for the latest model, gifted likewise with incurable impudence and poverty of tact, both of which she was clever enough to veneer with vivacity and exploit as whimsical idiosyncrasies, she failed to measure up to his notion of the type of woman with whom Lucinda ought to be seen. He had been civil, no more, when she had danced into the box during the first entr'acte to make a public fuss over her darling Cindy, and then – engaged in small-talk by Julie's satellites, two sleek but otherwise featureless bloods – had failed to hear her invitation; and Julie had carefully forgotten to remind him of it on taking her leave.

      So Daubeney wasn't pleased as he helped Lucinda with her wraps; and she read disgruntlement in his silence and constraint.

      "You don't want to go, Dobbin? With me? Why?"

      "With you, anywhere. But…" He mustered an unconvincing grin. "Oh, it's all right, of course. But Julie Allingham – you know – really!"

      Lucinda's mouth tightened, for an instant her eyes held a sullen light. "How tiresome! You sound just like Bel. How often have I heard him use almost the same words: 'Julie Allingham – you know – really!'"

      "Sorry," Dobbin said stiffly.

      "What's the matter with Julie Allingham?" Lucinda demanded in a pet. "She's amusing, I like her."

      "Then there's nothing more to be said."

      "Oh, you're all alike, you, Bel, and all the rest of you!"

      "Think so?"

      "What if Julie has made history of a few husbands? At least, she's been honest about her changes of heart; when she tired of one, she got rid of him legally before taking on another. I call that more decent treatment than most men give their wives."

      "Never having had a wife, can't argue."

      "Oh, you sound more like Bel every minute! Do come along."

      All at once her succès had evaporated into thin air, the flavour of it, that had been so sweet, had gone flat, like champagne too long uncorked. And all (she thought) because Dobbin with his stupid prejudices had reminded her of Bel!

      It began to seem as if there might have been more truth than she had guessed in her assertion that men were all alike in their attitude toward women, toward their wives and toward – the others.

      But if that were so (surely she wasn't the first to glimpse an immortal truth) why did women ever marry?

      And why, in the name of reason! having once worried through the ordeal of having a husband, did any woman ever repeat an experiment which experience should have taught her was predestined to prove a failure?

      She emerged from a brown study to find herself in the car, with Dobbin at her side watching her thoughtfully.

      "Cross with me, Cinda?"

      With an effort Lucinda shrugged out of her ill-humour.

      "No, of course not. With myself, rather, for being a silly. Dobbin: you're a dear."

      "I know," he agreed with comic complacence; "but it doesn't get me anywhere."

      "You're not very flattering. I don't tell every man he's a dear."

      "I'm wondering what the term means to you."

      "It means a great deal."

      "But what are the privileges and appurtenances of a dear's estate in your esteem? Does it carry the right to take liberties?"

      "It might be worth your while to try and find out."

      "Well… It's been a question in my mind ever since last night, and something you said just now… Is the inference justified, you and Druce aren't getting along too well?"

      "Oh, do stop reminding me of Bel! I do so want to forget him for tonight."

      "Then it's worse than I thought."

      "It's worse than anybody thinks that doesn't know, Dobbin."

      "So he hasn't changed…"

      "How do you mean?"

      "Why, I used to know Bellamy pretty well, pal around with him and that sort of thing…"

      "No," said Lucinda slowly, eyes straight ahead – "if you mean what I mean, Bel hasn't changed."

      "Then…" Daubeney found a hand which Lucinda resigned to his without a struggle. "As a man who truly loves you, dear, and always has, I think the right is mine to ask yet another question: What are you going to do?"

      She shook her head dolefully: "I don't know yet."

      "You said last night you were still in love…"

      "Last night it was true."

      "But today – ?"

      "I don't know."

      "I won't ask you what has happened, Cinda – "

      "Please don't. I don't want to talk about it."

      "Only I must know one thing: Is there anyone else – with you, I mean?"

      Lucinda met those devoted eyes honestly. "No, Dobbin, I'm sorry – not even you…"

      "Then that's all right. No need for either of us to worry. You'll come through with flying colours. Only, don't do anything in haste, and right or wrong, count on me."

      Lucinda gave